


she's the boss

by zauberer_sirin



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Developing Relationship, Director Daisy Johnson, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2017-12-09
Packaged: 2019-02-12 08:46:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12955596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/pseuds/zauberer_sirin
Summary: Five times Coulson called Daisy "boss" in a professional situation & One time he called her "boss" outside work





	she's the boss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hamsterfactor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamsterfactor/gifts).



**one**

It is a big pile of paperwork, but hey, hers is even bigger. 

The authorities won’t let anything slide, not with her in charge, their so-called allies scrutinizing every little detail in this new SHIELD, hoping Daisy would fail, that Inhumans would fail. 

“I’m sorry to have to ask this of you,” she says.

All-nighters used to be a way of life for her, back when, back when Skye. But it’s been a while and this is a bit nostalgic.

She still she feels like she has to apologize every time she gives him an order. Like she has stole his place.

Coulson grabs the huge pile of reports and sits himself and his expertise across the desk from Daisy. The light in the office - her office - is already in night settings. It feels weird to sit at the desk, with Coulson in front of her, yet his record player - recovered - is sitting there in a corner, like some kind of shared custody arrangement, but it’s her office now.

He smiles, quickly opening the first folder on the pile.

“No problem, boss,” he says.

Daisy smiles once he’s already dropped his gaze to the task at hand. She goes through these first days feeling like a fake, especially every time someone refers to her as “Director”. Coulson never makes her feel like a fake. Perhaps the only person in her life who has that effect. He makes her feel like she deserves this. This, the first time he calls her _boss_ , it makes her beam with some kind of unexpected pleasure, enough to make her feel comfortable in the role, in this chair. Tomorrow she’ll probably go back to worrying she is not ready for this, they shouldn’t trust her with the responsibility. But for tonight there’s the rare confidence, the sensation that she is right where she should be, in the world, and here with Coulson, and his voice.

 

**two**

“Ready?” Daisy asks, her back to her small team, the hand already lifted towards the door, to vibrate the lock apart.

“Yes, boss,” Coulson tells her, checking his gun, and it’s not exactly casual, the way he says it.

It’s a reassurance. First big mission on the field. Daisy still unsure of how the shift in position is going to affect the team. _Boss_ meaning everyone is on the same page as her.

A little playful too. 

She’s not sure she can put her finger on it, but it’s like he’s teasing it, at the same time as he is encouraging her. It makes Daisy turn her head a bit, throw Coulson an amused smile over her shoulder. She’s ready now.

 

**three**

“It’s your call boss,” Coulson tells her as they wait in reception and even though his tone is heavy and sympathetic this is the first time Daisy resents him for calling her that. She regrets the thought immediately, of course. It’s not his fault, of course. And she’s grateful he’s here at least, and she’s not alone on this.

“It shouldn’t be my call,” she protests. “It should be Child Services’ but as long as they don’t allowed Inhumans to be trained for this, or at least have some goddamn-”

She bites her tongue. Coulson has heard all this before. Inhuman awareness seminars are not compulsory for social workers, and each state does whatever it pleases.

“I know,” Coulson says, resting his right hand in the crook of her elbow.

Daisy takes a breath.

“They’re not prepared to deal with something like this,” she says, filled with frustration. It’s not the first case; not since some asshole scientist synthesized a drug that _might_ suppress or lessen the powers in Inhumans, especially effective in young people or kids. Parents poisoning their own children with that crap just to stop them from being who they were. Coulson was shocked when they investigated the first case. Daisy not so much. It didn’t take an new wave of anti-Inhuman panic for Daisy to know the harm parents can do to kids. But this is the first time she and Coulson had ended up waiting outside a hospital room, a little girl’s life in the balance.

“They’re not prepared to deal with something like this but…?” Coulson asks.

“But if SHIELD takes her now… Kel is too young to be isolated like that, I don’t want her to learn that she has no place in the world of humans.”

She notices his expression. Almost amused, given the circumstances. She realizes she has slipped in what no doubt the team has dubbed one of her “impassioned Inhuman speeches”. Coulson has heard this particular one before. He has heard them all. He’s one of the few people she’s comfortable enough with to go on a rant like that.

“What about a halfway option?” he offers, and she recognizes that tone of voice, in her head she calls it his _helpful deputy_ voice, for Coulson is always helpful but there’s a special inflexion when he’s trying to help Daisy with the challenges of directorship.

“A halfway option?” she asks.

“Let CPS take care of it right now, they should start shaping up anyway,” he says. “But on the condition SHIELD has to pay a role, that whoever takes the girl in will listen to our experts, take advantage of our resources.”

Daisy nods. It’s a good plan. It’s a very Coulson plan. Coulson who believes humans and Inhumans can live together without pain or oppression in a way that some days strikes Daisy as tragically naive, and other days as absolutely necessary for the same reason. Or at least necessary for her.

she watches the nurses and doctors pass them by, and she exhales a breath of uncertainty, gloom, disgust at the human condition.

“If the girl even-”

“She’ll be all right,” Coulson cuts her off.

Coulson all full of faith and fingers slipping into Daisy’s hand, holding it tight, everything will be all right.

 

**four.**

“Hang in there, boss,” he says.

She smiles a bloody, desperate smile through the pain.

“I like it when you call me that,” she says.

“Boss?”

She nods. Coulson cups her head, gently stroking her chin, her jaw covered in blood too.

“I didn’t know that,” he says, softly, his eyes going a bit wide.

“Well, now you do.”

He busies himself for a moment, glance away from her eyes, brow unconsciously wrinkling, as he applies pressure to the gaping hole on her shoulder, almost already on her neck. She can vibrate bullets away, but they were too many, and her powers went to protect Coulson first, neutralize the three attackers second.

“Help will be here in a moment,” he tells her.

But he sounds shaky. It makes Daisy want to comfort him. But her body feels heavy and it doesn’t want to help her lie.

“You’ve been a great second in command,” she tells him, wanting to say oh so many things to him, but wanting to start with saying thank you first.

Coulson tries to shush her.

“Don’t talk like it’s over.”

“You’ve supported me and I… when you were Director, I was always… I…”

He smiles. “A pain in the ass?” he offers.

“Yes, that.”

He shakes his head.

“You were honest. It was challenging but, it was good. And I knew your support was almost unconditional,” he ends with the joke.

“Almost,” Daisy agrees.

He smiles again and then his face turns serious and intense. And Coulson can do intense really intense, Daisy thinks, as her thoughts become more confused and mixed up, the semi-euphoric effect of the blood loss kicking in.

“Mine is not,” he says.

“What?”

“ _Almost_ unconditional,” he tells her, drawing his thumb across her cheek.

She knows that Coulson’s version of unconditional, like hers, doesn’t mean he’s going to go easy on her, that he won’t challenge her - that’s part of it. She knows the kind of unconditional Coulson means is the kind she always wanted, the kind she knew she’d never have.

She _thought_ she’d never have.

Her thoughts, jumbled.

Slipping away, cold. Coulson’s hand, warm.

Hang on.

 

**five**

It becomes a bit of an inside joke between them, Coulson’s tone of voice always tiptoeing between professional and personal, the word joining both worlds.

“Ready when you are, boss,” he says, gun in his hand, about to storm the building.

Daisy going first, her hand lifted, protective.

Him wearing his bulletproof vest, which makes him look more fragile than usual. And more youthful too, like he is a recruit in her charge, a rookie, like he is her responsibility. He will always be her responsibility, in ways she never was his.

Daisy thinks they can tell it sounds different, it’s been sounding different for a while now, his _boss_ , when he says it and it sounds like the way he sometimes breathes her name between kisses, but also the way they’d discuss animatedly, in her office, drawing the ops for their next mission. She has to admit she liked it even before, before they were - well, a thing. It had pleased and excited her, and it had grounded her, make her feel like she could do anything.

And she still turns her head, Coulson still makes her turn her head, throw one like glance, one last smile, at him, before facing whatever comes at them.

 

**one**

“I wish you’d told me before,” he says, his voice still calm but starting to lose breath.

“What?”

“That you like it when I called you _boss_.”

She tilts her head, narrowing her eyes at him.

“You make me sound like a perv,” she says.

“Yeah,” Coulson replies, mouth full of her neck. 

His hand go under her leather jacket, fumbling to feel the warmth, but drawing her to him. Daisy moves her hips over his, pinning him to the hotel mattress.

Once they decided they wanted to do this, they decided they wanted to do it outside of the base, wedge a little moment for them that’s not all about SHIELD or the team or the complications and pains and darkness in their lives. A moment that is a huge bed and clean sheets and room service in the morning.

He helps her out of the jacket, her shirt, they hurry, clumsily, but Coulson’s movements are full of care, the wound still pretty fresh on her shoulder. They couldn’t wait any more. They can’t wait. Soon they are naked, guiding each other across their bodies, kissing through it all like kissing is still the most exciting thing they could do, Coulson’s hands on her hips as he helps her lower herself on his cock, his fingers digging into her skin wonderfully as they star moving together, as they start matching each other, picking up speed.

“Slower?” Daisy asks him, knowing that however long this is going to be it’s not going to be long enough, no way, not with Coulson. “Please.”

He nods, stops thrusting and starts rolling his hips instead.

“As you wish… boss.”

She narrows her eyes at him again, pretending it doesn’t hit the spot this time, and Coulson breaks into an open smile, smug, wrinkles around his eyes, choking with soft laughter, with her name, in her hands.


End file.
